Dude, take Ihor's offer up. Seriously, him and Rich are the **** and will give the car a truely good look over. Dont waste your time and just take it to them. His sn is rotary experiment seven. They know theyre stuff.

 

I would, however clifton, NJ is about 2 hours from me, while Jim at JPR is about 15-20 minutes away. Ihor and Rich are two very respected guys, and I have nothing but respect for their knowledge on rotaries, and both are good guys too, however it just makes sense to take it to Jim who is also very respected in the rotary world as well. I just need the car looked over for major mechnical problems (which I doubt there are any being I already looked at the car myself) and for a possible compression test. Both Jim at jpr and Ihor/rich can do this for me, however Jim is much closer. Just makes more sense..

 

No hard feelings if you go to Jim. He is a good, honest guy as well.

 

Right on, I would probably do the same if its that much closer. Compression check ftw though.

 

Anyone know if Jim from JPR is closed for the whole week (or just the day after Chirstmas)? I called a couple times with no answer since the 24th. Wasn't expecting anything until today. Left a message this morning, hoping to get a call back soon.

-Nick

 

UPDATE: Just got in touch with Jim at JPR. To any of you guys that don't know him, he sounds like a really nice guy. He hooked me up with one of his buddies who is going to come pick the car up (towing), take it to the shop, and then bring the car to either my house if it checks out okay, or back to the owner if it doesn't. So hopefully after tomorrow the car will be mine. Thanks for all your help guys.

-Nick

 

Sweet. I hope everything works out for you

Post some better pictures if you end up getting it. I always wanted a red FD but I ended up with a beautiful white one instead. Maybe someday I'll have another FD in red.

 

So I was out all day today with the car. Last night I picked up the keys from the owner. A buddy of Jim's at JPR (Derek) came this morning and picked up the car. He towed it all the way to Jim's shop (because it had no insurance or tags). Took Jim about 45 minutes to look over/test drive the car. For any of you guys that don't know Jim, he is a very nice, down to earth guy. His best interest was car, and making sure I wasn't going to get ripped off. He looked at every single detail even to the point where it might need an oil change. He also gave me all the things he would recommend me doing to the car. He is an awesome guy (along with his friend) and I will def. be using him in the future. Jim said at the price I as getting the car this was a "homerun" and that even with the little things wrong with it, I should absolutely buy it.

Anyway, His friend towed the car back to my house, and the owner is coming over tomorrow so we can make the transaction. By this time tomorrow I'll own my first rx-7! Here's the list of stuff Jim said he would recommend:

leaky oil cooler (going to try to pick one up on the forum-let me know)
slight oil pan leak-nothing to worry about
main cat rattles (drives me nuts, if anyone knows where to get a new/aftermarket one let me know)
recommended new radiator-he suggested koyo
recommended AST replacement- he said plastic isn't the best
Tune up-new plugs, oil, oil filter, fuel filter, etc (this is first on my list...need to get a check list together for a good tune up)
*new rear hub bushings (don't know where to get these)
*new bearings (don't know where to get these)

The compression checked out at front 89-90, rear 90-91 so I'm good there. And the vac was 18 inches so I'm better than good there as well.

Otherwise everything was great. He said the car was a steal with the miles and price, so I jumped on it. I guess I'm now part of the community .

Anyway, I'll def be asking a bunch more questions in the next couple of weeks trying to get the car straightened out. I have my daily driver already (99 tarus with 73k miles ) so there is no need to rush. If anyone has anything else to add, please do. Thanks everyone for all your help that contributed, I really appreciate it. I'll post some pics in my next post..

 

It was getting dark so I kinda rushed them, but after I was it this week or next I'll throw some more up..

 

some more..

 

bump for guys that wanted to see the car

 

Congrats looks very clean.

 

the car looks great! I personally am not a fan of the steering wheel but the car looks good. Welcome aboard!

 

Congratulations. Welcome to the club...

 

I am so glad it all worked out for you! Kudos to all the guys on the forum that helped this new member out, and especially to Jim and crew at JPR.

Now, just be SAFE in that thing, seriously. These FDs are phenomenal cars.

Does anyone know whose car it was? As in was the previous owner a Forum member?

 

Very Nice congrats. I got a gresat deal when I bought mine last year when it had 29k miles on it and have had no real problems to date.

Congrats again!

 

Yeah thanks to everyone. This car really won't be driven too much. maybe 5k a year..for now . The only thing that Jim said about the car was that if it was the car he was thinking about, it was in really great shape. I sparked his interest when I told him where the previous owner got the car, and that it had a wing.

 

hoiw about the stack of receipts for it, I know people like that, I have a folder with mine.....

 

yeah I have a folder now too. The owner was not a member of the forum. The car has been owned by him for the last 7 years, otherwise I couldn't tell you who the first owner was...

 

How much did you final end up paying for it? Nice car by the way.

 

Don't mean to sound overly cautious but that compression test of 89-90, 90-91 is very alarming.

Correct me someone if I'm wrong, but isn't that the VERY LOW to MINIMUM side of "needing a rebuild in the next few months, certainly within a year" ...

The vacuum reading at 18 is good, but that's because there aren't any leaks, unless the boost is not near the 10-8-10 pattern. What was the boost reading anyway? Any signs of the leaks from the turbos?

Compression test sources:

http://www.fd3s.net/compression_test.html

http://www.rotaryresurrection.com/3r...ion_check.html


I am really surprised no one, including Jim who inspected the car didn't mention anything or maybe he did and the OP just isn't paying attention.

Despite the nice looking FD, unless you have some $4-5K sitting in the bank ready to spend with Jim for an engine rebuild, I would keep looking for an FD that has a better compression test.

 

Thanks for your concern. Jim stated that the compression was right in the middle of the pack and depending on how much I drove the car and how I drove the car there definetely wasn't need to rebuild the engine until ATLEAST a couple years down the road.

The boost pattern was a perfect 10-8-10 with no leakes. They were also rebuilt when the previous owner bought the car.

 

It ws pretty damn cheap, if you want to know any specifics, pm me. Thank you.

 

Wow, wish I had seen this sooner and gave you some advice. That compression is on the far low end, the car is still driveable but I would be concerned. Im not knocking anyone here or the advice you recieved. Im giving you my honest advice, unless you baby that car you will be paying for a rebuild in the very near future. Knowing what the shops up north charge, you will soon have $18k in that fd. If you only drive the car about 5k miles a year it might make it another 2-3 years.

I hope it works out for you but I personally wouldnt advise someone to buy an fd with 90psi of compression and pay 14k for it. I sold a car about 2 yrs back that had 85-90psi and I advertised it as a blown motor car.

Edit: Just noticed you paid less than $14k for the car. With a fresh rebuild that car is worth around $16-17k so if you payed $12K or less you didnt come out that bad.

 

Yes I paid less than 12k and the motor only has 5k miles...